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The national flag of Italy, center left, flies along side the European Union flag from the Palazzo Chigi, the headquarters of the Italian government, in Rome. The European Commission will warn France and Italy's governments that they may face action in March if they do not follow through on written pledges to the EU executive on cutting deficits and making their economies more competitive, according to a European Union official. Close

France and Italy will escape immediate punishment over their 2015 draft budgets when the European Commission announces results of its assessments tomorrow, a European Union official said.

The Brussels-based commission will instead warn the two governments that they may face action in March if they do not follow through on written pledges to the EU executive on cutting deficits and making their economies more competitive, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The commission considered moving to sanctions tomorrow and decided against it, the official said.

Under budget-monitoring rules bolstered during the euro-area debt crisis, the commission will publish its formal assessments of draft 2015 budgets from all of the countries using the euro, apart from Greece and Cyprus, which are still subject to conditions under their bailouts.

Earlier this month, the commission decided against rejecting any budget outright, saying that none of the euro-area nations seriously risked breaching EU spending rules, while leaving open the possibility of warning that measures were needed. The decision to put off until March any move toward sanctions is a change to the EUs timetable for such action.

While the EU cannot dictate the contents of a national budget, it can begin a process to impose fines if governments repeatedly flout debt or deficit targets or take insufficient measures to deal with imbalances.

Countries are required to narrow deficits to within 3 percent of gross domestic product and to reduce debt to 60 percent of GDP. They can ultimately face fines of as much as 0.7 percent of GDP if they do not take effective action, after other factors such as growth potential are taken into account.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ian Wishart in Brussels at iwishart@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alan Crawford at acrawford6@bloomberg.net Jones Hayden

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France, Italy Said to Avoid Immediate Action Over Budgets

The European Union expects stablegas supplies this winter under a deal by Russia and Ukraine, asenior EU energy official said, even while Moscow has yet toresume shipments and Kiev has yet to pay in advance as agreed.

Russia provides a third of European Union gas supplies, andhalf of that volume flows through Ukraine. Previous spatsbetween Kiev and Moscow led to temporary supply cuts to Europe.

Ukraine and Russia signed an agreement, brokered by theEuropean Commission, at the end of October to cover gas suppliesover the winter as a temporary solution to a long-standing pricedispute between Moscow and Kiev.

But Russian gas producer Gazprom has not resumedshipments, suspended in June, and Ukraine has not provided thepre-payment that Moscow says is a condition for restartingsupply.

"So far, everything is in order," Maros Sefcovic, theEuropean Commission's new energy chief, told reporters onThursday on the sidelines of an international energy conferencein Kazakhstan's capital Astana.

"We are in close and, I would even say, everyday contactwith both Ukraine and the Russian Federation, and I hope that wewill have no problem with gas this winter," he said in Russian.

Sefcovic's comments were among the first from newlyappointed members of the EU executive body on the gas supplyissue.

Under the EU-brokered deal, Ukrainian state firm Naftogazhas agreed to pay Gazprom $2.2 billion in debt and upfrontpayments before supplies resume.

Naftogaz has transferred the first $1.45 billion tranche ofthe payment, but it has not said when it will place new orders,nor for what volume.

Naftogaz Chief Executive Andriy Kobolev said on Monday thatUkraine planned to buy 1 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas fromRussia by the end of the year and up to that amount monthlythrough the winter.

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European Union expects stable gas supply even as Russian shipments yet to start

EU legislators have called on antitrust authorities to consider breaking up companies that use search activities to dominate other markets

In a move widely seen as targeting Google, European Union legislators have called on antitrust regulators to consider unbundling search engines from other commercial services as a way of maintaining competition in the search market.

While the non-binding resolution adopted by the European Parliament on Thursday didn't mention Google, the company is the obvious target, with about 90 percent of the European search market.

The E.U.'s executive arm, the European Commission, has been conducting an antitrust investigation into Google since 2010, examining the company's promotion of its own services in search results among other things, but has proven reluctant to enforce penalties and has struggled to reach a settlement with the company.

In approving the resolution by 384 votes to 174 on Thursday the Parliament sent a strong signal to the Commission to address such antitrust concerns more forcefully, one to which it will have to respond.

Although the resolution roiled diplomatic relations with the U.S., it will have little effect on the Commission's investigation of Google, nor on Google, which Parliament does not have the power to break up.

Google declined to comment, but the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA), of which Google is a member, stepped up to criticize the Parliament's decision.

"Unbundling of companies is an extreme and unworkable solution that makes no sense in fast moving online markets. While clearly targeting Google, the parliament is in fact suggesting all search companies, or online companies with a search facility, may need to be separated. This is of great concern as we try to create a digital single market, and the right conditions for innovators, in the EU," CCIA Europe Vice President James Waterworth said in an email.

Adoption of the resolution was clearly designed to increase the pressure on competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, he added. "Sound competition policy is too important to a well-functioning economy to let it be influenced by anything but the facts and the law. Interjecting politics into independent legal proceedings undermines the credibility of competition investigations and thus confidence in markets."

The Members of the European Parliament behind the motion stressed earlier this week that breaking up Google is only one of the options to solve the issues with the company. Other options include introducing a rotation mechanism to display commercial services from Google and its competitors in the same location and with the same prominence on the search results page. Adopting legal measures specifically aimed at the search market could also solve the problems.

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European Parliament calls on Commission to consider breaking up Google

Doing Business In Latvia: Linking The East And The West
The European Union #39;s fastest GDP growth rate of over 4 per cent in 2013 and the recent adoption of the euro are not the only factors that make Latvia an attractive foreign direct investment...

By: Why Emerging Europe Emerging Markets Review And News

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Doing Business In Latvia: Linking The East And The West - Video

The Hidden Roots Of The European Union / Henrik Palmgren
Back-up channel for OnderKoffer II.

By: Onder koffer III

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The Hidden Roots Of The European Union / Henrik Palmgren - Video